Overview

In this captivating bilingual photobook, one photographer spends five years exploring the streets of Mexico City and its surrounding mountain towns on the hunt for El Vocho -- the Spanish term of endearment for the iconic Volkswagen Beetle. Vochos, and the vocheros who preserve them, become the pathway for Rodrigo Gaya Villar to rediscover his ancestral home country. Along his travels, Gaya learns how the 60-year old German automobile reshaped Mexico's trajectory with easy, affordable transportation. Now it fuels a passionate community of vocheros who encapsulate its enduring spirit, and embrace its role in shaping contemporary Mexican identity. Over 300 pages, Gaya's debut collection Vochos Unidos introduces the reader to vibrant people and locations that place the full Mexico experience on display. Through moments of triumph and heartbreak, laughter and despair, pride and humility, Vochos Unidos chases the Beetle across a culture and landscape as diverse as any in the world. We become attuned to the spirit of the Vocho, and the adopted homeland that celebrates it.

Full Product Details

9798991622691

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Reviews

""By seamlessly blending playful punch-buggy car-spotting with stunningly framed street photography, Rodrigo Gaya Villar vividly demonstrates that ""car culture"" simply is culture. His eye for dusty old beaters and tucked-away alleys highlights what other artists might ignore, and his work feels fresh and novel even with the iconic sillhouette of the Vocho as its uniting theme. Far more than a book of automotive photography, Vochos Unidos is a gorgeously affectionate portrait of both the Beetle and Mexico."" -- Victoria Scott, author of We Deserve This. ""The Volkswagen Beetle is such an iconic car and I can't think of a better place to photograph them than their natural habitat. Gaya seamlessly incorporates each vehicle and tells a story with each photo. It's not always about the car, which makes Vochos Unidos so warm and relatable. I'm proud to have this book on my coffee table."" -- Larry Chen, author of Life At Shutter Speed. ""Through a camera and his creative eye, Rodrigo Gaya Villar investigates Volkswagen Beetles known as Vochos from every imaginable perspective. In the process, he shows us joy, freedom, strife, and the pulse of megacity living. Across hundreds of beautiful photographs of this automotive icon, Vochos Unidos depicts humanity itself."" -- Kevin McCauley, author of Waiting for the Sun to Come Down. ""Through Rodrigo's creative, patient eye for composition and moment, the beloved Volkswagen Beetle chug-chugs into our hearts as a resilient, iconic symbol of Mexican pop culture and street life. Patched with ingenuity, painted in rebellion, parked in the middle of life, these vochos persevere as vessels of Mexican memory and mischief. Rodrigo is a rare talent capable of merging the rawness of documentary photography with the art of portraiture. We are willing and enchanted passengers on his visual road trip through not only Mexico, but the unstoppable human spirit."" -- Patrick Farrell, Pulitzer Prize Winner for Breaking News Photography. ""Vochos Unidos is a dazzling, street-level tour of Mexico's towns and cities, with the country's ubiquitous Volkswagen Bug at its center. Gaya Villar roams Mexico's regions, spotting these Vochos everywhere from the back alleys of Mexico City to the sandy shores of Oaxaca. The book is a visually poetic love letter to his homeland and its favorite, adopted child."" -- Oliver Wang, author of Cruising J-Town and Professor of Sociology at California State University, Long Beach.

Author Information

Rodrigo Gaya (b.1987) is a documentary photographer based in Miami, Florida. His work has been displayed at Art Basel and IGNITE Broward, and commercial photography clients include Hewlett-Packard, Scuderi Ferrari, Adidas, AirBNB, Bvlgari, Chivas Regal, Mastercard, MetLife, Neiman Marcus, Quicksilver, Sony Music and more. Inspired by the desire to explore his Mexican background, he moved to Mexico from 2016-2023, documenting the country and its people. Vochos Unidos is his first book.

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